Hazel Ceej

“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.”  ~ Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams May I tell you something? I have been frequenting tea rooms lately. The other thing is, I found a sky beauty from my 5th floor porch! It makes me momentarily forget that we are under Martial Law right now. Life goes on and I am grateful for the wonderful things this week. Here are five of them: Something that made me smile in the midst of anxiety . Back home in the Philippines my kiddo is sick. It goes without saying I am worried but I can't help chuckling when I was told that he complained to my mother, "Grandma, I have a headache on my neck." An 'oh...?' moment . I was told that CJ's doctor is an old friend I used to date; asked my Mom about me after taking a look at CJ. Sounds and feels like my son is in good hands.... And then the roses, those love letters, that weekend together in an uncle's house came flooding ...

Research papers or PhD proposals don't count, right? Yeah, I write those and sometimes a speech to kick off a university business meeting. The rest of the time I play with recreational haiku, and that's that. So I'm no writer, but once in awhile I date some daiquiri. When the calendar showed 1-1-11, I headed off to a beach town, the Thai Royal family's summer home. I did balance the table with something healthy. Now we don't play with our food but we certainly can have fun: Guess which writer loved daiquiri: Edward Thomas, Randall Jarrell or Robert Frost  Clue : " The land was ours before we were the land's..." Read at JFK's inauguration .  *More on writers and what they love to eat here .* Someone once said 'it takes four men to dress a salad. One for the salt, one for the pepper, one for the vinegar and one for the oil."  Can you name which men? Here are your choices: a . yeoman, barman, monk, gamekeeper b . wiseman, madman, miser, s...

I want to write a book about shoes that's full of footnotes. ~ Jarod Kintz My only recollection of noticing Replay merchandise was around 13 years ago when an ex-boyfriend mentioned that he liked the brand. Recently I was browsing in the shoe department of Central Plaza and noticed an attractive sign. Now what made me decide to check this pair out? Nah... it's not nostalgia for a past love. The new resolve to treat myself now and then is one. It fits and does not send me waggling on the glazed floor of my playground, a.k.a. lecture rooms, so that's another one. But the number one motivation for this purchase is the 90 percent off factor! I paid just US$13.35 instead of US$135.45. Quite a steal, isn't it? Sold to shoe lover me. This post is shared with Momspective * The Creative Homeacre * Mellow Yellows *  Make the Scene * Color Connection * Thrifty Things * Favorite Things

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. ~Ernestine Ulmer Butter pan cake with warm chocolate, green tea ice cream and red bean jam T his dessert plate arrived on my table and I had my nose glued to The Pelican Brief . When I remembered to take a photo, the green tea ice cream had began melting. But who cares? This is one of those feel-good moments when you're doing two things you love simultaneously! Food Friday * Share the Joy * Food Trip Friday

What spirit is so empty and blind that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? - Michelangelo  Why is the Mom in this family picture smiling? Oh, I know. The Dad is wearing shoes. Old Photo Album But my mother was also smiling in our family photo. All three of us look about the same age as this family. Mama said she explicitly told Papa that day long ago that we would sit for a family portrait so we were to don something formal. But lo and behold Papa came in flip flops! Mama wasn't very happy about it. She still placed our picture neatly in the family album though. Family is family, slippers or stilettos. What is unknown to me, besides the identity of this family, is how Father (rest in peace, Pap) ended up in the photo studio wearing slippers when he wore shoes virtually all the time. In fact we only saw him wearing slippers during his retirement. Ah well, so much for shoes. I have ...

Les Miserables hit big screens in Bangkok on January 31st, weeks behind Europe. At least that's what I remember a friend in Sweden said to me last week of December 2012- that they're all crazy about the musical. I love buying little treats to celebrate films I enjoy watching. This time I tried the warm chocolate cupcake from Coffee Beans by Dao . I also browsed a sprinkling of quotes by LM genius Victor Hugo:  "To love another person is to see the face of God."   “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.” "He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two.” “It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.”   Food Friday * Share the Joy * Time Travel * Rednesday * Blues * Mellow Yellows

When I ordered ice cream at a big lunch I hosted in 2004 for (m/l) 300 family and friends at my father's funeral reception, I also wondered how it was made. I like to have an idea of how something I'm eating came to be. The recipe I'm sharing comes from Rita on Food: Home of the Home Cook . She says her son likes chocolate mint ice cream and she made this for his birthday. In the meantime I can only buy scoops for my son and for a slightly different reason - to bribe him to eat veggies. The plan though is to try this recipe myself when things at work calm down. Ingredients : 2 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder, approximately 1/2 cup 3 cups half-and-half 1 cup heavy cream 8 large egg yolks 9 ounces sugar 2 teaspoons pure mint extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions : Place the cocoa powder along with 1 cup of the half-and-half into a medium saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Add the remaining half-and-half and the heavy cream. Bring the mixture just to a si...

This is my screwdriver during a birthday dinner with a girl friend. We ate at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms .

In a fairytale world, she's the damsel in distress and he's the gallant knight in shining armor who comes to rescue her from the tower of the evil witch. Enter reality - CJ in a golden steed green bike and Pinky gallop to the sunset head to the lift of a six-storey apartment building. They speak different languages. They also have different personalities. He is an introvert; she is obedient. And sweet. When asked to kiss him she obliged. Click!  goes the knight's little professor's very first kiss from a girl besides his mom. ABC Wednesday